Until Aaron Rodgers informs the Pittsburgh Steelers of his decision for the 2026 season, it\u2019s hard to get a real projection of what the offense might look like. Yet, while it\u2019s only getting later into the offseason, the Steelers won\u2019t be panicking if Rodgers retires, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette\u2019s Ray Fittipaldo. While the Steelers hope that Rodgers returns, Fittipaldo says they\u2019re ready to move on if he retires.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are very comfortable, one way or the other. Because they know, eventually, that they have to move on and develop a franchise quarterback. And if it so happens that Aaron Rodgers decides to retire this year, they have told us that they are comfortable and looking forward to working with Will Howard. And Mason Rudolph is already in the building,\u201d Fittipaldo said Tuesday on The North Shore Drive<\/a><\/p>\n Pittsburgh has been vocal about its pursuit of Rodgers all offseason. But Omar Khan also mentioned that it wouldn\u2019t be the end of the world<\/a> if Rodgers didn\u2019t return. The Steelers know they need to find a franchise quarterback sooner rather than later, a key part of their decision to bring in Mike McCarthy, who\u2019s consistently gotten the most out of his quarterbacks.<\/p>\n If Rodgers doesn\u2019t return, one obvious candidate is Will Howard. Someone who McCarthy finds a way to compliment<\/a> essentially every time he speaks in a public setting.<\/p>\n But the Steelers also have 12 draft picks to work with. And Fittipaldo wouldn\u2019t be surprised if the Steelers select a quarterback somewhere near the middle of the draft.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s probably going to be with one of those three third-round picks, maybe one of those two fourth-round picks\u2026 And one guy, I think, really, you should keep an eye on, is Drew Allar. Because he\u2019s that big, if there was a definition of a guy would look like Ben Roethlisberger, he would be it\u2026 You could probably put [Carson] Beck in there with Allar as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Allar would be an interesting choice. Fittipaldo compares him to Ben Roethlisberger, and there are some similar traits. But Allar\u2019s draft stock fell tremendously in 2025. He wasn\u2019t able to show up consistently in the most important moments at Penn State and had some tough losses in 2025. In the midst of that season crumbling, his collegiate career was cut short by an ankle injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n Beck has some faults. But for what it\u2019s worth, he did win some bigger games towards the end of his own collegiate career. In his sixth season as a College Football player, he found a way past Texas A&M, Ohio State and Ole Miss for three straight playoff wins. He nearly took down Indiana in the National Championship game, but came up just short.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason both Allar and Beck are third-round talents. Yet, each has some traits worth developing. If Rodgers doesn\u2019t return, the Steelers might be fine with Howard, Mason Rudolph, or another veteran anyway. But with 12 picks, it wouldn\u2019t hurt to take a shot on Allar or Beck if the value is there.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Until Aaron Rodgers informs the Pittsburgh Steelers of his decision for the 2026 season, it\u2019s hard to get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[1586,2037,1800,7,560,14427,7827,2183],"class_list":{"0":"post-846818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-carson-beck","10":"tag-drew-allar","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-mason-rudolph","13":"tag-north-shore-drive","14":"tag-ray-fittipaldo","15":"tag-will-howard"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116328880271548538","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}